A jumbo-sized pumpkin weighing nearly 48st is so big it's unloaded by a forklift truck as one of the star attractions at a country show.<br /> <br />Green-fingered gardening fans will be showing off their giant fruit and vegetables at this weekend’s Malvern Autumn Show.<br /><br />Entrant Tim Saint, 42, transported his whopping 47.6st (667lbs) pumpkin in a trailer to display at the Worcestershire event.<br /><br />The 42-year-old gardener, from Reading, attached industrial straps to the supersized squash before hoisting it into place using a farm teleporter.<br /><br />He said: “I grew a 667lbs pumpkin this year which I’m delighted at.<br /><br />“I’ve been growing pumpkins for 20 years and that’s biggest I’ve ever done. <br /><br />“It's got to be over 3ft tall at least, I’m 6ft tall myself and it’s big. <br /><br />“The secret is just plenty of water and manure, plenty of cow manure especially. <br /><br />“It takes a lot of water, I normally I give it five watering cans of water a day. <br /><br />“My best friend's got a trailer and we brought it down in that. We had to use a forklift to get it off. <br /><br />“I had a 44lbs beetroot here too. <br /><br />“I'll be doing this every year until I can’t do it anymore.”<br /><br />Thousands of gardening fans are expected to flock to show to marvel at the gigantic greens.<br /><br />Ian Scott, 51, from Wells, Somerset, is hoping his 3.5st (22kg) cabbage will secure him a spot on the winner's podium this year.<br /><br />The dad-of-two, who works as a stone mason, said: "At the moment I think I’m standing at first place. It's not even a record for me. <br /><br />"It's 22kg and about four-and-a-half feet wide. It's not been a good year for cabbages, it was so hot at the beginning of the season.<br /><br />"Then it was colder and wetter at the end of the season. <br /><br />"It's still early doors, but I'll definitely be in first or second. <br /><br />"My first show was in 1999. I've had one year off of cabbages, my soils good for it. <br /><br />“I do grow marrows, pumpkins, runner beans. The cabbage is my best one <br /><br />"You've got have the right seed and mother nature needs to be on your side. I have my own seed, I've done very little to it this year. <br /><br />"The plants got planted around March or April time. They got forgotten about until <br />August. <br /><br />"They weren’t that big this year. I've had them 6ft across and it’s a bit hard to not break leaves off him. I've already got the seed saved for next year.<br /><br />"Normally we’d have to water them, but it feel out of the sky. I water it two or three times a week. A watering can each time. <br /><br />“Getting to the water to the root underneath is the biggest challenge."<br /><br />Eleven new Guinness World Records were set at last year’s show, including the heaviest aubergine weighing 3.362kg and the longest leek at 1.432m long.<br /><br />Hoping to have claimed the giant cucumber record this year is Tom Bailey, 32, who says he's narrowly beaten last year’s record by 600g.<br /><br />Tom, from Barry, South Wales, said: "It’s a 13.52kg cucumber, it was a bit of a surprise. It's my first year entering. <br /><br />"It’s a good seed and soil that make it. I've been using alpaca manure. That's helped it, and a bit of luck. <br /><br />"It’s my first competition. I’ve tried pumpkins before. But I got given some cucumber seeds and I thought I'd chuck them in. I’ve managed to grow a record. <br /><br />"Mine’s above average for this year, I think the previous record was 12.9kg."
